Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

profound policy in these views in an age when
nations were so powerfully influenced by the
principle of religion. From this and other causes the
question of Church government was being very
anxiously discussed in England; pamphlets were
daily issuing from the press upon it; the great body
of the Puritans had become Presbyterians; and in
1642, when the royal standard was set up at
Nottingham, and the king unsheathed the sword of
civil war, the Parliament passed an Act abolishing
prelacy; and now came the question, what was to
be put in its room?
On the 1st of July, 1643, the Lords and
Commons passed an ordinance "for the calling of
an Assembly of learned and godly divines and
others, to be consulted with by the Parliament for
the settling of the government and Liturgy of the
Church of England, and for vindicating and
clearing of the doctrines of the said Church from
false aspersions and interpretations." To this
Assembly 121 divines were summoned, with thirty
lay assessors, of whom ten were Lords and twenty
Commoners. The divines were mostly clergymen
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